Channel 4 in Jacksonville reports than an 18-year-old man died on Friday night, August 26, when he was thrown from an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and hit a metal gate. Florida Highway Patrol troopers report the crash happened on County Landfill Road in Palatka around 10 p.m. The young man was from Ocala and riding eastbound on the dirt road on a 2003 Honda four-wheeler. For some reason he was thrown into the closed metal gate and his stomach and chest were injured. He was taken to Putnam Community Medical Center but pronounced dead after 35 minutes, according to the FHP report.
Our condolences go out to this man’s friends and family for his sudden death. They are in our prayers.
Studies find that ATV accidents in Florida and across the nation are on the rise, and too often it is young people who are the unfortunate victims of these defectively designed vehicles. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, all-terrain vehicles are injuring about 4,500 young riders in the U.S. every year with an increasing number of spine injuries and amputations. They are defectively designed with a high center of gravity which gives them a tendency to tip over, even a low speeds. The Academy believes ATVs should not be ridden by anyone under the age of 16.
The popular three-wheeler ATVs stopped production in 1987 because of safety concerns but many are still in the marketplace and the American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested a ban on the sale of the three-wheelers. Suzuki introduced the four-wheelers in 1985, which are increasingly popular but still dangerous.
When researchers looked at emergency room visits in California for off-road vehicles from January 2005 to the end of 2007, they found 110 patients who were ten times more likely to need an amputation because the riders try to brace themselves during a fall. Multi-riders in the four wheelers led to ten times as many amputations as a single-rider, researchers from Loma Linda University Medical Center found.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), there were 254,000 ATV-related injuries that required treatment either in a hospital or emergency room in 2000. The first month or riding, inexperienced ATV drivers have 13 times the average risk of injury, says the CPSC.
If you have been injured in an ATV accident, contact Farah & Farah to learn more about your legal options. Our personal injury attorneys in Palatka help clients who have been injured in a wide variety of motor vehicle accidents, including ATV crashes. Call our law offices today to learn how we can help you.
Sources: http://www.news4jax.com/news/28998115/detail.html, http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2011-08-27/story/ocala-man-18-dies-accident-four-wheeler-putnam-county, http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00265 and http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/105/6/1352.abstract
